Sundance 2010: THE ROMANTICS, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, IT’S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE
Three more world premieres to be screened out of competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival:
- Lisa Cholodenko‘s The Kids Are All Right (above), starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, and Josh Hutcherson;
- Galt Niederhoffer‘s The Romantics, featuring an ensemble cast that includes Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Anna Paquin, Adam Brody, Malin Ackerman, Elijah Wood, Candice Bergen, Jeremy Strong, and Dianna Agron;
- Gurinder Chadha‘s It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, with Shabana Azmi, y Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Sally Hawkins.
The film information below is from the Sundance festival’s website.
The Kids Are All Right
A couple, Nic and Jules (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore), live with their teenage children, Joni and Laser (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson), in a cozy craftsman bungalow in Los Angeles. As Joni prepares for college, her younger brother pesters her for a big favor—help him find their biological father. Against her better judgment, she makes a call to the sperm bank; the bank, in turn, calls Paul (Mark Ruffalo) and asks him if he’s willing to meet his daughter. He agrees, and a complicated new chapter begins for the family.
Director Lisa Cholodenko returns to Sundance (Laurel Canyon played at the 2003 Festival, and High Art won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1998 Festival) with this vibrant, astute, and richly drawn portrait of a modern family. Once again, Cholodenko demonstrates her uncanny ability to reach beneath the gloss of Southern California to illuminate the emotional and transformative power of human vulnerability, and in doing so, establishes herself as one of America’s most formidable auteurs.
The Romantics
In The Romantics, seven close friends—all members of a tight, eclectic college clique—reconvene at a deluxe seaside wedding to watch two of their own tie the knot. Lila is the golden girl preparing for her dream wedding, and Laura is Lila’s maid of honor. Once college roommates, Laura and Lila have been best friends since their first meeting on campus, but Lila’s groom, Tom, is the man they have long rivaled over. Promiscuity and hi-jinks abound as the drunken friends frolic in the nearby surf and revel in the nostalgic haze of their glory days.
Producer-turned-director Galt Niederhoffer adapts her own novel of the same name in this audacious first feature. With an outstanding ensemble cast, The Romantics is both a Zeitgeist love story and generational comedy that breathes new life into the genre and recaptures the camaraderie of youth.
It’s a Wonderful Afterlife
With nods to Frank Capra, ghost stories, murder mysteries, and screwball comedies, Gurinder Chadha whips up an irreverent caper about the pressures on Indian women to tie the knot. Set in West London (Bend It Like Beckham territory), the film centers around Mrs. Sethi, a doting Punjabi mother obsessively seeking a suitor for her appealing, but (heaven forbid!) rapidly aging, daughter, Roopie. When a string of curious murders involving poisonous curries and chapati dough begins to rattle the neighborhood, things really start to heat up. As detectives and ghosts trample through the Sethi household, Roopie’s love life gets an injection of excitement, too. Nothing in this supernatural escapade is as it seems as spicy truths unspool and fate takes its madcap course.
A top-notch cast, including celebrated Indian actress Shabana Azmi, sexy Sendhil Ramamurthy, and a zany Sally Hawkins, breathe life into Chadha’s clever tale about appreciating what’s right under our noses—with a little help from the Hereafter.
More information about: Annette Bening, Galt Niederhoffer, Gurinder Chadha, It's a Wonderful Afterlife, Julianne Moore, Lisa Cholodenko, Sundance 2010, Sundance Film Festival, The Kids Are All Right, The Romantics
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